Tribute held for colonel killed in Baghdad's Green Zone

MERIDIANVILLE - Before the last roll call and "Taps," before the proclamations and certificates from the governor, Col. Stephen Scott's best friend gave a eulogy.

The man, Al Reed, was one of three people to give a tribute this afternoon during a memorial service for Scott at Flint River Baptist Church here.

Because Reed knew Scott better than almost any of the 150 or so people at the service, because he had the most to say, he was the last of the speakers.

"He had a life that was full of different faces," Reed said. "He was a motorcyclist, had parachuting experience, was a marathon runner."

Above all, though, Scott was remembered as a soldier during a memorial service that lasted just more than one hour. Scott, 54, died April 6 in a mortar attack in Baghdad's Green Zone.

He is the ninth colonel to be killed in Iraq and one of the highest ranking officers to die there, according to an Associated Press database of military deaths.

Scott and Reed, best friends for 33 years, moved to Huntsville from St. Louis in 1997 in the BRAC defense job realignment.

"How he loved this area, New Market, Hazel Green and Meridianville," Reed said. "That was his place to be. He was raised in the city environment. But he got down here, where rush hour is five minutes, and he had his peace and quiet."

Scott lived in the northern part of the county, about four miles from Flint River Baptist Church.
His hobbies included fishing in the Flint River, riding his motorcycle through the back roads of North Alabama and southern Tennessee, and running.

"The dude had running buddies all over the place,'' Reed said. "I wasn't one of them. We were different, but we were so close."